Not sure why it took this long, but I finally got back on the water. Yesterday was perfect. Breezy. Low humidity. Sunny. I went up to Stroud’s Run and circumnavigated Dow Lake. Despite the fact it was high noon, I saw a good bit of wildlife: an osprey, several blue herons, an otter and a […]
Category Archives: Paddle Bob
Paddling the (water) lilies at Lake Hope
We’ve had great weather this week, prompting me to do some paddling. I went up to Dow Lake on Monday and paddled the entire thing. On Tuesday, I set of for Lake Hope, about a 30-minute drive from here. It definitely was worth the trip. I had the entire lake to myself when I put […]
Kayaking at Burr Oak Lake …
When I sold my kayak in D.C. I knew it was a mistake. One that I just fixed. I picked up a used 17-foot Current Designs Storm via Craig’s List, and despite my concerns that it might be more kayak than our Toyota Prius could handle, a Thule rack system made it so I can […]
Testing, 1, 2, 3 …
I’ve been using the Cyclemeter app to track my rides, but a recent Wall Street Journal story listed several other activity apps that are worth a look, including Trails. I like Cyclemeter, but it’s just for cycling; Trails tracks a range of activities, including hiking. So I downloaded Trails (it costs about $5/year) and set […]
Autumn paddle on Melton Hill Lake
I took advantage of a shimmering autumn afternoon yesterday to paddle Melton Hill Lake. I put in at the dam and headed upstream, pausing to paddle up Hope Creek. Fall colors still were clinging to a few trees along the shoreline, but for the most part the woods had receded into their winter attire. This […]
Paddling Glenville Lake
I’m not a golfer and I have little interest in spas. So when Lara and I drove over the Dragon and into northeast Georgia to meet her brother, sister-in-law and another couple for a weekend in the mountains, I strapped the kayak to the top of the truck intending to explore nearby lakes. After debating […]
A kayak made of poetry
In a New York Times obituary of George Hitchcock, the founder of Kayak poetry magazine, it noted the publication carried the following motto in every issue: “A kayak is not a galleon, ark, coracle or speedboat. It is a small watertight vessel operated by a single oarsman. It is submersible, has sharply pointed ends, and […]
Nuns with paddles
It’s so dark I don’t see the nun buoy until I’m a few feet away. How odd. The red, nun-shaped marker on Parks Bend conjures an instant flashback to angry Sister Mary Library chasing me and Doug Hamilton around book shelves with a paddle, hoping to put a hurtin’ on us after we’d glued alarm […]
Evening paddle
The weather has been great for the past week or so, prompting me to put the kayak in the water on Wednesday night and paddle over to Prater Flats. I was out for about 2 1/2 hours. It was a great wildlife night. Lots of blue heron, kingfishers, osprey and lunker fish roiling the shallow […]
Paddling Sinking Creek at sunrise
I woke up early today and drove down to Concord Cove Park since I still had my kayak on the truck from the Fontana paddles earlier this week. Concord Cove is about a 12 mile roundtrip paddle from the house, which pretty much is as far as I can go in one push, so putting […]